Leadership

Professional Pool Operators of America

Kent Williams

Quirky, headstrong and full of
humorous anecdotes, Kent Williams is not really someone to argue
with. “I have been accused of being in the aquatics industry
and being an aquatics professional and, really, I’m
neither,” says the president/founder of the Professional Pool
Operators of America, a not-for-profit organization that unites
aquatics professionals across the country.

He actually
prefers operators who aren’t focused strictly on aquatics.
“The swimming pool is a mechanical facility —
mechanical, electrical and chemical,” Williams says. “A
pool guy who speaks English as a second language, didn’t
finish high school and can’t swim a lap, but he’s one
hell of a pool guy — that’s the guy I love
training.”

Since
starting PPOA in 1993, Williams has been doing exactly that. In
fact, to be part of his 1,500-member organization, you must be a
graduate of a recognized pool-operator curriculum, an instructor or
a pool-assigned environmental health specialist. Williams teaches
the National Recreation & Park Association’s Aquatic
Facility Operator course once a month to approximately 40 students
per class.

“They’re truly
professional because they are fully certified,” he says. His
PPOA membership stretches to Canada, Europe, Australia, Central
America, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The group aims to
recognize, acknowledge, train and refine the operators of
institutional and public aqua-tics facilities throughout the
Americas (and now the developed world).

The
67-year-old Williams is still not sure how he got involved in
aquatics. “I never thought I’d get into the business of
the pool system and design and water treatment itself,” he
says.

Though he
runs a consulting business, he puts most of his time into PPOA,
headquartered in Newcastle, Calif., where he also lives. PPOA also
publishes the Pumproom Press, a quarterly newsletter.
Through it, Williams writes on a number of topics and crusades
against things such as the irresponsible marketing of pool
chemicals.

The often
controversial publication remains popular among members. And it
allows Williams another way to do what he loves best:
teach.

“It’s fun to see people
come around and say, ‘That’s why it works,’
” he says. “Often they know what to do, but
they’re not sure why, and it reinforces their desire to do it
right.” — Rin-rin Yu